By Brandon Barger
TheStatehouseFile.com
INDIANAPOLIS—Hoosiers from around the state came together on a cold winter’s morning Tuesday at Lucas Oil Stadium to help pack boxes of food for the hungry as part of the 9th annual Million Meal Marathon.
The event included more than 3,000 volunteers from corporate sponsors, such as UPS, 3M, and Charles Schwab, local civic groups, churches, and Indianapolis-area schools and families. Each group worked a two-hour shift, where they helped to pack bags of nutritional meals for their fellow Hoosiers.
These meals consist of dried vegetables, soy, and rice, which each has the essential nutrients and vitamins that many of the people receiving theses meals need.
Kate Howe, the managing director of the Indy Hunger Network, said here are a million people in the state who don’t have access to healthy meals and of those, 200,00 of them are from Marion County.
“Fifty percent of them told us that they rarely or never ate a nutritious meal,†Howe said of a study her organization conducted.
Howe then said that the volunteers were going to be able to get those people the meals that they need.
Capt. Chris Bailey of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department put the result of the day’s mission in a different light. Bailey said hunger problems are actually a crime issue, especially in children.
“Many of our children go to school hungry each and every day,†Bailey said. “They are not getting the nutrition that they need for brain development and that causes people to make bad decisions.â€
Bailey then said that because of this lack of nutrition, it causes young people to take risks on their freedom and personal safety by potentially robbing a delivery truck.
All of the meals that were packed will stay in state to feed the one in five children who do not have access to quality, nutritional food and their families. Each box was loaded into a truck from Midwest Food Bank and Gleaners, two Indiana food banks. The trucks will take the food to Indianapolis warehouses and then distribute them to food banks around the state.
IMPD Captain Chris Bailey speaks before the Million Meal Marathon at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Tuesday. Photo by Brandon Barger, TheStatehouseFile.com
The event was held in a room adjacent to the field at Lucas Oil. Volunteers arrived to the sounds of music and the mass of people mingling and talking. Marcus Bailey, a meteorologist from WISH-8, served as the master of ceremony for the event.
Once it was time to start, each volunteer grabbed a hair net and, in the case of some men, a beard net. The music started up again and everybody was led to the tables where the packaging happened.
It then became like an assembly line as each person did a different job, such as filling the bags with the rice, closing and sealing the bags, and putting them in the boxes. Workers from Million Meal Movement then took the filled-up boxes to the locations where they would sit and wait to be put onto the trucks.
Indianapolis Deputy Mayor David Hampton was on hand for the event and said that it was a joy to see his fellow Hoosiers show up to help pack boxes and will help those to think about others who may not have access to food during this time of giving.
“I’m hoping that the advent of Thanksgiving will cause us all to stop and, as we eat, think about others who may not have those privileges,†Hampton said.
The Million Meal Movement packed 1.8 million meals in 2018.
Brandon Barger is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalists.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the fact that the meals are being packed for general distribution, not just Thanksgiving.
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